Upson looking forward
WHUFC.com
Matthew Upson feels West Ham United need to start turning performances into
points
06.10.2009
Matthew Upson was looking at the bigger picture after West Ham United picked
up their first home point of the season against Fulham. With just seven
games played the West Ham United captain knows that not too much attention
should be paid to league standings at this early stage. "Where we sit the
table is not what we need to be looking at," he said. "We need to look at
where the team is going, where the performances are going and from that
point of view it is not all bad news. "But we need to be more clinical and
wipe out the little things that are letting us down."
After a solid first-half display on Sunday, West Ham went into the interval
deservedly a goal to the good. But after the interval Roy Hodgson's side,
who had already seen Kagisho Dikacoi dismissed, rallied and two quick goals
were only just cancelled out by a late Junior Stanislas equaliser. Depite
the late goal, Upson, who has joined up with his England team-mates ahead of
Saturday's FIFA World Cup qualifier with Ukraine on Saturday, felt the
Hammers should have taken more from the game. "It feels like we lost the
game even though we scored to draw. We are very disappointed and it is
something that we need to put behind us and get stronger from. We passed it
well in the first half and created chances to win the game, and we ended the
half just one up. "It was a dangerous game at half-time, as we never added
to the lead, and it gave them an incentive to pull together, which they did.
They played very well with ten men and we never killed it off and a couple
of mistakes and sloppy things costs us. That is the reason why it feels a
loss."
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Stanislas sets his sights
WHUFC.com
After another goal for the first team at the weekend, Junior Stanislas has
England duty on his mind
06.10.2009
Junior Stanislas is away with England Under-21s and is predicting the time
away for all the club's internationals will help them to focus before Stoke
City on Saturday week.
Stanislas has linked up with club-mates James Tomkins and Zavon Hines for
the Young Lions' match against FYR Macedonia on Friday night, with the
fixture the third in the 2011 UEFA European U21 Championship qualifying
campaign. Freddie Sears would have made it four Hammers involved but for an
ankle injury. The 19-year-old said the call-up would be a positive influence
on preparations for the Premier League resumption. "There is a bit of a
break now. It is nice to play for your country. We haven't been on the best
run so the little time away will break things up and then we will come back
together looking to beat Stoke."
He said having familiar faces around - including Hines for his maiden
international experience with England - was also good for morale though. "It
is better for us when we are together. We can talk and interact a bit more.
Freddie's injured this time otherwise he would have been there as well. It
is good. "Zavon deserves the call-up. He has played really well since he has
come in, He has been unlucky not to score a few but has done really well and
it is nice he will be with us."
Talking of goals, Stanislas came off the bench to convert a crucial
equaliser in the 2-2 draw against Fulham last Sunday, just when it seemed
the ten-man visitors would hold out for an away win. "It was difficult at
times," said Stanislas of an encounter that has left all at the club
determined for better next time around. "It is nice to come off the bench
and score as well. It is good for me and obviously good for the team. I
thought we played well in the first half but to come away with a draw when
they had ten points is disappointing for us."
He was introduced into the fray with Valon Behrami on 72 minutes and
Stanislas revealed the duo had been given licence to go for it. "The manager
just said to try and make an impact when we come on the pitch," he said. "I
thought me and Valon did that and the boys already on helped us."
Stanislas has three goals in seven appearances this season, having always
been a steady scorer during his time in the Under-18s and reserves. "I like
to score goals and to create goals as well, it is part of a winger's job.
Under the circumstances against Fulham, it was nice to score."
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Sullivan plays down West Ham move
BBC.co.uk
David Sullivan insists he will not be making a move to buy West Ham in the
immediate future after selling his shares in Birmingham to Carson Yeung.
Birmingham's plc chairman Sullivan, who formally ends his 16-year
association with the Blues next Tuesday, has been linked with the London
club. When asked if he was going to approach West Ham, Sullivan told BBC
Sport: "It is very unlikely. I need a break. "I'll then have a look to see
what's available but nothing is impossible."
Yeung's takeover represents the formal end of the Sullivan, Ralph Gold and
Karren Brady era at St Andrews, although David Gold is poised to remain as
chairman. The Hong Kong businessman will take charge of the club next
Tuesday, which is when Birmingham's 8,000 shareholders receive their money
from the deal. Sullivan, along with Brady, took charge of Birmingham in 1993
when the club was in financial administration. He added: "I bought
Birmingham 16 and-a-half years ago and it's been stressful. "I need a little
breather, a tiny little bit of time to recuperate. "Then I'll see what makes
sense from a financial point of view, geographical point of view and heart
point of view - you've got to merge all those three together to come up with
what's best for you."
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Gabbidon absent for Wales
Ledley also a doubt, but Bellamy travels to Finland
By Elliot Ball Last updated: 6th October 2009
SSN
Wales will be without West Ham defender Danny Gabbidon for their forthcoming
World Cup qualifiers against Finland and Liechtenstein. The Hammers
centre-back has been unable to train for the past fortnight due to a calf
injury and has failed to shake off the complaint in time for the
international double-header. It is a bitter blow for Gabbidon, who has been
easing himself back to top-level action this season after a torrid two years
on the sidelines with persistent injuries. Gabbidon made his Wales comeback
against Montenegro in August and also figured against Russia last month, but
he is now out of the Finland clash in Helsinki on Saturday and next
Wednesday's final qualifier in Liechtenstein. Wales boss John Toshack has
other injury concerns and will make a decision on Wednesday over the fitness
of Cardiff midfielder Joe Ledley. Ledley is suffering from a pelvic injury
and had a scan on Tuesday to assess the problem. Ledley will now refer to a
specialist, with the likelihood that he will also miss the Group 4
qualifiers.
Skipper Craig Bellamy reported to the squad's team hotel on Tuesday evening
and is fit to travel, despite worries that he had picked up a knee problem
on Monday after scoring in Manchester City's 1-1 draw at Aston Villa.
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Sullivan admits Hammers love
Outgoing Blues chief plays down speculation of Upton Park bid
By Elliot Ball Last updated: 6th October 2009
SSN
Outgoing Birmingham City co-owner David Sullivan admits West Ham are close
to his heart after being linked with a potential investment in the club. The
news comes after Sullivan, along with soon-to-be former co-owner David Gold
relinquished their stakes at St Andrews to Hong Kong businessman Carson
Yeung on Tuesday. Sullivan insists he is keen to stay in the game after
taking what he describes as a "well-earned break", but has refused to
speculate on whether he could be mounting a bid for the cash-strapped
Hammers. He told Sky Sports News: "I wouldn't discuss any possibilities with
any clubs but I will look at what's available in the next three to six
months and if something appeals to me on an emotional point of view or
financial point of view, ideally both, I would immediately step in and buy a
percentage or controlling interest in that club." Sullivan, who confessed,
"Anything's possible in football" regarding a potential investment at Upton
Park, understands why he has been mooted with a future takeover. He added:
"I just think I'm being linked because they are down the road (from me) and
they are obviously owned by a bank that's insolvent, but I have had no
discussions whatsoever with West Ham and I have had no discussions with any
other club at this stage."
Sullivan has confirmed that new Blues owner Yeung will appoint a
high-profile chief executive as the new owner is keen to take the Midlands
club to new heights. "That's exactly what we've heard," he said of the
person set to take over Karen Brady's role at the club. "We were told it is
someone from the Premier League. "All we know is they're keen to buy players
- they indicated they would have liked to have brought some players in
August had they brought the club in time. "They've indicated they are
possibly looking at a new stadium, all the things we would have liked to
have done and we hope they do it for the supporters."
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West Ham's ability to stave off administration has been remarkable
Given the financial plight West Ham faced when previous owner Bjorgolfur
Gudmundsson was at the sharp end of the financial meltdown that affected the
global economy, it is remarkable the club have staved off administration,
never mind relegation.
Telegraph.co.uk
By Jason Burt
Published: 7:00AM BST 07 Oct 2009
Certainly there were those among the hierarchy of the Premier League who
were concerned enough about the club's viability last season to alert chief
executive Richard Scudamore that intervention might be needed. Along with
Portsmouth, West Ham were deemed as being at risk. They still are. However,
it is testimony to the extraordinary work of chief executive Scott Duxbury,
technical director Gianluca Nani and manager Gianfranco Zola that the club
finished ninth last season and aimed to do equally well this time around.
Sport on television However, West Ham labour in 19th place with just one
League victory. That has led to understandable jitters among those involved
in the club's ownership, the company CB Holdings, which is ostensibly
controlled by Gudmundsson's main creditors headed by the Icelandic bank,
Straumur. Banker Andrew Bernhardt has been installed as chairman but it is,
effectively, a holding position. Straumur had hoped to ride out the economic
storm, with West Ham surviving as a self-sufficient entity, and there is
much to applaud in their approach. After all, they are trying to do the best
for the club as well as their own financial interests. Eventually, it was
reasoned a buyer would be found who would be willing to realise the full
value of a club with the playing assets and potential of West Ham. But it
now appears that Straumur would do best to act sooner rather than later.
Zola, Nani and Duxbury have grown frustrated as they have worked hard, as a
trio, to tidy up the financial mess left by Gudmundsson and, more
relevantly, the club's former chairman, Eggert Magnusson. West Ham have
followed a blueprint set out by Duxbury to end the haphazard spending under
the Icelandics when the likes of Freddie Ljungberg received exorbitant
contracts of £85,000 a week and barely played. Under Duxbury's plan West Ham
would develop young talent, but also not be afraid to sell older players.
Such forward-thinking self-sustainability works in principle but also needs
strong backing and other clubs have been alerted to the frustration being
felt by Zola.
There are potential buyers though, as yet, the kind of cut-price deal being
offered by former Birmingham City owners David Gold and David Sullivan is
not being taken seriously.
It means that Straumur need to fully back Zola, Nani and Duxbury both in the
short and medium term, especially if they are ever going to recover in
excess of £100 million which they hope to realise for West Ham.
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Zola will lose plot if he's left potless
The Mirror
By Derek Mcgovern 7/10/2009
They say the way to tell the strength of a Premier League club is by looking
at the state of the bench. West Ham's is on eBay. On Sunday the Hammers had
as substitutes Kurucz, Spector, Da Costa, Payne, Nouble and Stanislas - the
kind of players who last season were still putting their cash in a valuables
bag before a game. When I say 'valuables bag,' I really mean the left-back's
sweaty sock. As a result West Ham could only scrape an embarrassing draw at
home to 10-man Fulham. The embarrassment was Fulham's. West Ham boss
Gianfranco Zola is possibly the most likeable man in football - even I like
him and I don't like anyone - but his board is as tight as a coat of paint.
There's no money in the West Ham coffers, or even in their sweaty socks. In
fact, I hear they can't even afford a coffer, whatever that is. You can get
13-2 about the Hammers getting relegated. I suggest you take it. Only
Portsmouth sit below the Hammers, that's Portsmouth with the new billionaire
owner. The last team to avoid relegation after losing their opening seven
games was Liverpool in 1899 - a curious coincidence since 18.99 is about the
cost of the average Pompey player this season. Pompey finally got the monkey
- and one or two fans - off their back by beating Wolves on Saturday and are
now 13-8 with Corals (11-10 elsewhere) to avoid the drop. Manager Paul Hart
is 2-1 with Sky Bet to last the season at Fratton Park and 5-6 with Bet365
not to.
Relegation betting (Corals): 4-9 Portsmouth, 4-7 Hull, 6-5 Birmingham, 11-8
Wolves, 7-4 Burnley, 5-1 Wigan, 6-1 Bolton, 13-2 West Ham, 8-1 Stoke.
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David Sullivan plotting cut-price bid for West Ham within the week
Published 23:00 06/10/09 By James Nursey
The Mirror
David Sullivan will step up his efforts to buy West Ham next week when he
gets £25million from Carson Yeung. Hong Kong businessman Yeung had his
takeover bid for City rubber-stamped yesterday after paying £1 a share. And
Sullivan and the Gold brothers are due the money for their combined
shareholding in five working days. Essex-based Sullivan, 60, is keen to stay
in football and hopes to buy Premier League strugglers West Ham. He wants to
go through the Hammers' books in the next few days and assess their debts
which MirrorFootball revealed yesterday total a staggering £100m . But the
tycoon is willing to do business if the Upton Park club's Icelandic owners
sell for a bargain fee due to their list of creditors. Sullivan said: "Half
of me would like to have three months off after leaving Birmingham but I
want to stay in football. "I will start looking at what is available next
week but at a lot of clubs the debt exceeds the value of the club." If
Sullivan fails to get West Ham, Norwich, Charlton, Cardiff, Leicester and
Ipswich are other possible options.
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One Step Beyond (Part Two)
Billy Blagg - Tue Oct 6 2009
West Ham Online
A fantastic cup run in which West Ham beat some of the best teams of the
day, eventually taking part as odd-on favourites in one of the great cup
semi-finals decided over four games and 420 pulsating minutes before cruel
fate and controversy intervenes to ensure it all ends in heart-breaking
defeat, may not be the type of story that you think will need re-telling
after 37 years. In some ways though, the 1971/2 League Cup run is everything
that West Ham represents. Like it or loath it, the very reason that you -
young or old - support the Hammers can be laid bare on a miserable, cold,
rain-sodden Manchester night in January 1972. Read on if you dare.
--------------------------------------------------------------
West Ham's opponents in the 1972 League Cup semi-final were Stoke City,
generally reckoned to be everyone's second favourite team; someone to
support if you were a neutral.
The main reason for the bonhomie towards the men from the Potteries was the
popularity of their Manager, Tony Waddington and his policy of picking up
players who were assumed to be past their prime and giving them an
opportunity to prove they were anything but. Waddington was also one of
those bosses who liked to take a chance on skilful players who seemed to
have lost their way or were seen as 'troublesome'. Jimmy Greenhoff, George
Eastham and Peter Dobing were all first team members in 1972 and, along with
Gordon Banks who was coming to the end of his glorious England career, they
were seen as, depending on your view, a team of old men or experienced
campaigners. In fact, Stoke were neither and had proved themselves to be a
good cup team in the early seventies, twice getting to the FA cup semi-final
only to be beaten unluckily both times by Arsenal, a statistic which only
seemed to confirm the suspicion that they were a bit of a bridesmaid side.
Stoke's journey to the semi-final hadn't be quite as spectacular as the
Hammer's but a three match fourth round victory over Manchester United
showed they meant business, but even so West Ham were serious favourites in
the two-legged semis and the first game played at Stoke's old Victoria
ground just seemed to cement the odds.
It's not often you see the words 'formality' and 'West Ham' in the same
sentence but they appear in an old faded cutting I found from the Daily
Express describing the first leg of what was to become a titanic struggle.
Up until that time, no team that had won the first leg of a semi-final had
failed to reach the final…
It was Bobby Moore who was the hero of the first leg, marshalling the
defence and breaking up early Stoke pressure as the home side tried to gain
an early advantage. So keen was Moore that night, the normally unflappable
defender was even booked for what would now be deemed as a 'professional
foul' on Jimmy Greenhoff. Elsewhere Ferguson was defiant in goal and the
whole West Ham rearguard were beating shots away in the opening quarter so
it was probably no surprise when the Potters went ahead when the 33 year-old
Dobing hit home unmarked after a Greenhoff shot came back to him off a post.
But Stoke's lead only lasted fourteen minutes, when the first of what was to
become a number of the ties significant penalties, was given.
Eric Bloor was apparently the referee that night and he gave a spot kick
when Clyde Best was adjudged to have been brought down although there was
more than a suggestion that the Bermudan had simply fallen over his own
feet. Stoke protested vigorously but the decision was made. Geoff Hurst took
the penalty and it is ironic that the match report made much of the fact
that 'Banks salvaged the dignity of getting his fingers to the ball'.
In fact, Hurst's tactics at penalties was quite simple; hit them hard and
fast into the top corner where the goalkeeper can't get them. The England
striker's premise was accurate – like his kicking - in that, even if the
keeper guessed the right place, if the ball was hit at such a pace there was
no way they could get to the shot unless they moved before the ball was
struck. It was a tactic that had worked well to Hurst's advantage over the
years and this time was no exception; Banks' knew where the ball was going
but there was little he could do to stop it.
After 67 minutes West Ham made their 'progress towards the final a
formality' (well, it was 1972!) when Harry Redknapp skipped down the wing
that had been worn well by Stanley Matthews over the years and centred for
Clyde Best to volley in for a 2-1 first-leg lead.
The second leg at Upton Park was played in front of the inevitable capacity
crowd who expected to see the Hammers ensure a Wembley appearance. Again
though, it was a tight game with the home side seemingly stuck in the grip
of that age old problem when protecting a lead; push on and extend it to
kill the game or keep it tight and let the chasers worry about it. There
were chances at both ends but it was Stoke's centre-forward John Ritchie who
struck late in the second half, after a defensive mix-up between Taylor and
McDowell, to send the tie into extra-time. West Ham at least now knew what
they had to do though, and they laid siege to Stoke's goal. There were just
minutes on the clock when Banks went out to claim the ball in a tussle
between his team mate, left-back Mike Pejic, and Harry Redknapp, the Hammers
winger was pushed and the referee pointed to the spot. With barely a minute
or so on the clock the situation was simple: Geoff Hurst v Gordon Banks for
a Wembley final place.
Memories can play tricks on you; I've heard people over the years (and Sir
Geoff himself is one of them!) claim that Hurst put the ball exactly where
he wanted it, in exactly the same spot where he had placed it two weeks
earlier, and Banks somehow clawed it away, but the advent of a Youtube video
doesn't seem to support this. In fact, Hurst hit the ball lower and slightly
closer to the keeper than usual, but it may be this that makes Banks' save
even more memorable because the England keeper was going for the corner and
somehow adjusted his body full-flight to push his arms up and divert the
ball over. ITV commentator the legendary Brian Moore said "Banks has saved
it…miraculously.." Banks afterwards confirmed he thought the save was better
than the one he made against Pele in Mexico in 1970. I'm not sure it was but
it was still a wonderful – if sickening - stop.
So momentous was the tussle between Hurst and Banks that the match is
usually encapsulated to that two minute incident but, just after the wonder
save, it's normally forgotten that Harry Redknapp hit the post with Banks
well beaten. Perhaps, in another parallel universe…
When the whistle blew, the two-legged score was 2-2 on aggregate and a
replay was needed to separate the teams. The venue was Hillsborough where an
incredible crowd of almost 50,000 clogged up the local traffic so badly that
both teams arrived late. The vast crowd watched the two teams' slug out a
0-0 draw. It wasn't exactly forgettable – it was just that both sides seemed
to cancel each other and produce that other football conundrum of neither
side wanting to make a mistake so a stalemate develops. The combined cup
minutes and corresponding crowd sizes of both clubs was now starting to meet
Guinness Book of Record standards and it was going to take yet another match
to end the deadlock In fact, by the time of the second replay itself, it
would be almost two months since the first leg tie at Stoke. The two clubs
couldn't decide on a neutral venue, the Hammers wanting a London ground to
avoid their fans travelling north again while Stoke wanted Old Trafford. To
decide the issue they tossed a coin, and Ron Greenwood called.
Apparently, Ron wasn't in a particularly good mood at the time. The coach
that had brought the West Ham team to Sheffield had been tampered with
during the game, someone removing the petrol cap and tipping sand into the
tank, and the team had to wait until replacement transport could be found to
take them back to London.
Greenwood's mood wouldn't have improved by calling incorrectly and losing
the toss for the venue. Tony Waddington made the decision of where to play.
Manchester in January beckoned.
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